As final preparations get under way for the 15th annual Texas Film Awards, some new details about honorees, presenters, master of ceremonies, and the official afterparty are being released today. The Awards take place on Thursday, March 12 at the Austin Studios, and Mike Judge has just been announced as the show’s master of ceremonies.
Mike Judge got his start in Austin, where he directed the modern classic Office Space. He is also the creator of the animated TV shows Beavis & Butt-head and King of the Hill, as well as the live-action HBO show Silicon Valley, which begins its second season next month.
In addition to playing master of ceremonies, Judge will pull double duty as a presenter of the Texas Film Award to the late actor Christopher Evan Welch, who has also just been added posthumously to the roster of inductees. Welch played the character Peter Gregory on Silicon Valley, and was featured in supporting roles in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Master, and Synecdoche, New York.
Judge will also present an award to his friend and star of his Austin-lensed film Idiocracy, Luke Wilson. Wilson joins other previously announced Texas Film Awards inductees Tommy Lee Jones, Bonnie Curtis, L.M. Kit Carson, and Guillermo del Toro, who will receive an Honorary Texan award and also co-present the award to Carson’s family. Other newly announced presenters include filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, screenwriter Bill Wittliff, Austin Chronicle Editor and SXSW co-founder Louis Black, and actress Jess Weixler.
Also announced today are the performers at the Awards gala and the Texas Party, the official afterparty. In addition to the music, the party celebrates the movie Boyhood, which will receive Variety’s Creative Impact in Cinema Award at the ceremony, where Richard Linklater, Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette, and Ellar Coltrane will be present. Entertaining at the awards show is Grammy award winner Adrian Quesada (of bands Spanish Gold and Brownout) and his band of Texan all-stars – including award-winning composer and pianist Peter Stopschinski, Adrian Ruiz on trumpet, and Grupo Fantasma’s Greg Gonzalez, Mark Gonzales, and John Speice on bass, trombone, and drums.
Guests at the Texas Party will be treated to an all-vinyl DJ set by Wooden Wisdom, Elijah Wood and Zach Cowie’s Paradise Garage DJ group. Opening for Wooden Wisdom will be Austin’s own DJ Mahealani.
For info about purchasing tables for the gala (which includes admittance to the Texas Party), or separate tickets for the Texas Party, see www.austinfilm.org.
This article appears in February 27 • 2015.
